Stephen J. Farrell (December 26, 1863 – October 17, 1933) was professional track athlete, circus performer and track coach.
Farrell was a professional foot-racer in the 1880s and 1890s, beginning as a competitor in the hook, hose and ladder teams of New England. He was the first American to win England's Sheffield Cup on two occasions and competed in races from 100 yards to one mile. He became known as "the greatest professional footracer this country has ever known."
Seeking out new challenges, Farrell performed with the Barnum & Bailey Circus for several years racing against a horse, and he was never known to ever lose to the horse.(Farrell proudly noted that, in several years of racing horses with the circus, "he was beaten only half a dozen times by the horse during the years" .) Farrell later became a track coach at Yale University, the University of Maine, Ohio State University, and the University of Michigan. He coached at Michigan for 18 years and developed many great athletes, including DeHart Hubbard and Eddie Tolan.
Biography
He was born on December 26, 1863, in Rockville, Connecticut, to Matthew Farrell.
Professional foot-racer
The greatest professional foot-racer in America
Farrell grew up at a time when professional foot-racing was one of the most popular sports in New England, attracting as much attention as football would in the 20th Century. Farrell gained fame as one of the world's foremost professional runners in the 1880s and 1890s. Sports writer Walter Eckersall called Farrell "the greatest professional footracer this country has ever known." It was said that Farrell "could run any race from the hundred to the mile." In his day, he was considered by his opponents "the best money racer who ever pulled on a running shoe." Harry Gill, who later became the track coach at the University of Illinois, competed against Farrell and said he had never seen Farrell's equal.
Hook, hose and ladder events
Farrell got his start competing in the hook, hose and ladder events that were popular in New England. Farrell was much in demand as a No. 1 man on fire department teams and represented "many a team." Each town's fire team was made up of 16 men, and Farrell was the captain of three hose teams in Massachusetts. In those competitions, a hose cart was placed 300 yards from a dummy hydrant, and the team pushed the cart to the hydrant where the hose was uncoupled and fastened to the hydrant as the cart then raced another 200 yards and the nozzle affixed to the hose. In the hook and ladder days, Farrell raced with some of the greats of the sport who later became major college track coaches, including Keene Fitzpatrick, Mike Murphy, Johnny Mack and Bill Donovan.
Caledonian games and Sheffield Handicap
Farrell became a regular in the "Caledonian games," a professional track circuit in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Chicago. Farrell initially had success in middle distance events from 300 yards to a mile. He later shifted to the short sprint events and also became expert in the long jump and the triple jump. At one time, he also held the record in the standing backward jump at 11 feet.
In 1891, the citizens of Leicester, Massachusetts, provided Farrell with the financial backing to send him to England for the $15,000 Sheffield Handicap, then the world's foremost sprint event which was run over a turf course and attracted "the fastest sprinters in the world." He won the Sheffield Handicap in 1891 and returned to win for a second time in March 1894, becoming the first American to win the event twice. After winning his second Sheffield Handicap, a Massachusetts newspaper reported: "Steve Farrell is perhaps the best known runner in the world, having swept the card of sprinters in both hemispheres."
In August 1891, 20,000 spectators watched Farrell compete in the Clan-Na-Gael athletic games in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Farrell won the half-mile race (which was "virtually a walk-over for Steve Farrell, who was never pushed for the race and won with consummate ease"), the 120-yards hurdle (with Farrell winning "in hollow style" after nearly falling over the first hurdle), and the standing hop, step and jump (with Farrell "winning comfortably with 33 feet, 10-1/2 inches"). Farrell finished second in the 220-yard race (though he had been "looked upon as a sure winner") and third in the three standing jumps.